Hey guys, I haven’t posted in a long time. Been a lover of the hobby since 2018. Pre Logan Paul and pandemic. The hobby is gotten very toxic last few years and not from the community here but from the scalpers, the resellers, the whatnot community which I’m convinced is the real life Team rocket. My thing is prices are insane to the point now Pokemon is a rich persons hobby. Last few card shows I went to prices were so high and it felt like it was just about a bunch of grown adults gouging people for everything they are worth. I have no problem with organic growth and people making money but there is a line that has been crossed.
My proposed theory is the Pokemon company should do print to order. I don’t care how long it take but everything from sword and shield base to now should be allowed to be re printed. Because since the pandemic it’s been massive market manipulation.
My theory you go on the Pokemon center website and say I would like to order one case of every set. You pay msrp and it may take a 6 months to maybe even a year and a half to be fulfilled but you eventually get your product. I love and the hobby and the community but it just doesn’t feel fun anymore. Reddit, discords, just genuine hobby feels likes it’s on life support because it’s became about the flipper community. Who only care about profits and I’m not against making money but just doesn’t feel fun. Thoughts?
If they do just base reprints they get eaten up so quickly. Costco doing the 151 drops and people go there ready to fight. That’s a real issue. This even worse than 2021. So there’s gotta be a more efficient way to go about it. At their current pace we won’t see on shelves until 2027/2028 and that’s assuming we don’t get another influencer for finance bro coming in and inflating prices more.
I believe that the Pokemon company is trying to print to demand, but the demand is simply too high. They are at max capacity and this investment by Pokemon is one of the clearest signals we’ve seen that Pokémon is trying their best to respond to the increased demand.
Order so if it takes a year to fulfill that’s fine people will wait. The content creators will open on release and the average community is willing to wait a year to get it. But I’m not paying $500 for a booster box less than a year old. Paying $15 for a pack that’s 3 months old is insane. 151 going for 20 a pack and Pokemon is wanting to end printing in April and most people can’t even get it to open currently.
But my question is when and how far back? because this is been a known issue now really going on 6 years. We’ve had better times but really need to go back to sword and shield and rectify the printing issue since Covid. Instead they announced sets are going out of print.
Print to order would be impossible. The average collector spends less than two years actively collecting cards. It will take Pokemon at least that time frame to get their new printing facility up and running, by which point there is no guarantee the market will be the same and users will pay. It would be a debacle.
Print to order and print to demand sounds nice in theory, but in practice Pokemon is already running printers at max capacity. New capacity will absolutely help calm things down in the future, but Pokemon is going to focus on newer sets. Going back to print 151, which was readily available at MSRP, is not going to happen.
I think market manipulation is a little bit of a stretch but I feel ya. As far as I know, they are building a new facility to ramp up production. From a business perspective I understand why it took them this long. You don’t want to have that massive investment unless you know it’s going to be utilized. There were quieter periods between now and 2020 where you could absolutely get things at or bellow msrp. It’s fair for a company not to put out a huge investment if their current products aren’t selling like they were in the past.
With vintage prices that’s to be expected but sets 3-5 years old going for thousands of dollars is insane. The thing is because of whatnot and these pack opening channels I don’t see it slowing down. If we print to order. People can at least get the product. I rather wait 2 years and be able to get every set and open stuff then. Pay 300-400 for a modern box and then even sword and shield going for 800-1000 a box or evolving skies which was absolutely manipulated to 3000 a box.
Thing is they’re not printing booster boxes they print these stupid premium collector boxes. Print booster boxes because people want packs not the filler crap. The more they print the prices go down if Pokemon since Covid’s followed basic s&p or any investment common sense the most expensive sets maybe would’ve gone up 50% now 500%! That’s the problem. Reality is sets like prismatic should be at msp maybe $20 more now 160 for an etb or 151 going for 300 -800 an etb more like 100-150.
Edit: ignore my comment, just realised it’s a random shower thought on supply rather than addressing print to demand, lmao.
Despite its success I’d imagine the TCG is a small enough percentage of TPC’s overall IP revenue that they’re relatively relaxed about product supply. Almost everything they make is sold out before it’s even printed. It’s a perfect golden goose. That said, they’re highly brand and image protective, so doing something ‘better’ for their consumers (ie commissioning more print facilities) was an inevitability. Whether or not they feel significant pressure to make this happen is debatable, particularly given the new printers aren’t due to come online until 27/28 when the buildings (apart from one) and space already exist and are literally over the road from their existing ones.
I don’t know if there even is such a thing as printing to demand. scalpers and “investors” will just get way more aggressive with their tactics if TPC prints more. A ton of product is also backended by retail management. You can’t really print your way out of the blatant criminality that already dominates the hobby.
Nothing pisses me off more than print to demand questions.
Lets just say that tcpi prints a ton of cards, but scalpers take up 70% of it. If they print way more scalpers…are still gonna take close to 70%.
Just because you print to demand dosen’t mean that it’ll magically free up space for others to get product, it just means that the people that have the time and money to get them will once again grab them as always. Printing a billion more packs a day won’t do any good in such a market where people are dropping loans on packs.
Instead of complaining about modern singles just buy the cards you want. People on this forum spend boatlooads of money on singles, and most modern singles only take a while to save up. If your complaining about not being able to gamble on cards you may not even get, thats a problem.
I think you could totally shaft them. Upon increased printing announcements, scalpers will be afraid to sit on supply and possibly face selling for a loss. That alone will reduce the amount of scalpers making meeting demand slightly easier.
cost 3000 bux a box and u can get 4-5 vmax alts that arent moonbreon already in psa 10 condition for that price (will u even pull 1 from a box on average?)
